Saturday, July 8th - Tlell to Port Clements

We left the Rose Cottage after breakfast for the short (21ish km) ride to Port Clements, taking it slow. I was in the lead and kept Marieka in sight in my mirrors, but was finding it harder to go the same speed as Marieka could go. By our midway stop at Mayer Lake, it had been almost an hour on the road. Marieka talked about being tired, but couldn't really explain it so that I could understand. We walked a bit, she took a nap ont he shore and then, it being at 12pm, we had our first lunch of salmon sandwiches before getting back on our bikes.

Mayer Lake

Water flowers

Nap on the banks of Mayer Lake

 

The ride into Port Clements was uneventful, but slow, with a moderate hill a bit before the turnoff for Port Clements. In town, we did a supply run at the local grocery store, dropped out bags at our airbnb (more about this later) and rested up a bit before heading to the Golden Spruce Trail, so that Marieka could have a full day break from biking tomorrow.

The first 3km  of ride on paved road went quickly and were fun, but as soon as we hit the logging road things slowed down immensely. I figured the rougher road was a bit more challenging to find a confident line, and a bit more jarring. By the time we made the trailhead (3km later) it was feeling to me like this had been a bad idea. Marieka's back was sore, she was walking slowly, and worried about the ride out.

The walk had new, Haida-written signage centring Haida ways of being in this world, connecting with the wonder around us. At the end of the trail was the tale of the Golden Sprice, with a brief note that it had been cut down, but that its teachings live on. Returning to our bikes was a final teaching, to not look back, but to be and coexist in the now and future (my reading of it), which really helped to move from the discussions we'd been having about the cutting of the tree and the book "The Golden Spruce".

Big tree

Giant tree with a cave in it

Resting on a fascinating log

 

The return to pavement took less time than we had feared, but damage had already been done. We had dinner that night at the Axe & Anchor Pub, with Marieka wearing a healing plaster on her back again, worrying that disc may be bulging, and that she would not be able to bike to Masset.

That night, once Marieka fell asleep, I decided on some steps to take.